Vehicle Miles Driven Says It All About The Ongoing Economic Contraction
Doug Short, Advisor Perspectives
BusinessInsider.com
3-25-2012
The Depart of Transportation’s Federal Highway Commission has released the latest report on Traffic Volume Trends, data through January. Travel on all roads and streets changed by 1.6% (3.5 billion vehicle miles) for January 2012 as compared with January 2011. The 12-month moving average increased by 0.10%, which is the second month of increase after nine consecutive months of decline (PDF report).
Here is a chart that illustrates this data series from its inception in 1970. I’m plotting the “Moving 12-Month Total on ALL Roads,” as the DOT terms it. See Figure 1 in the PDF report, which charts the data from 1987. My start date is 1971 because I’m incorporating all the available data from the DOT spreadsheets.
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